Random musings on the world at large through the eyes of a quiltmaker. My motto: Make the quilt and then paint the bedroom!

Friday, April 10, 2009

On the road again, got to get on the road again

Starting Wednesday night, I leave for a teaching trip out west. First stop: Houston, Texas. I'll get to visit family first for a couple of days and then the gals from the Lakeview Quilters Guild are taking a two-day workshop with me on the Star of Bethlehem quilt pattern. Like the Lone Star, a Star of Bethlehem has a big center star pieced from small diamonds but then the quiltmaker adds smaller pieced stars placed between the eight legs of the center motif.

I was inspired by an old quilt in my collection. A North Carolina piece, and possibly of Lumbee Indian origin, I made a not-exactly-the-same-but-close tribute piece. The close-up shows that what looks like a darker shade of green was probably a home-dyed blue when the quilt was made in the 1920s. Making this quilt, over an eighteen month period, confirmed for me once again that I love the process and flow of hand work. But this is not the quilt to make if you have a deadline!

I had to bring back the idea that blue had been a part of this quilt so my version has a strong cornflower blue added to the mix. And I got finicky about those sawteeth and made sure they all matched which meant I had to make more of the little buggers. I loved making this quilt.

The Lakeview gals are welcome to piece by hand or machine and we'll have two days to make the magic happen.

Then I go on to the Washington State Quilters in Spokane. This group gets Mastering Quilt Marking, a half-day of the 19th Century Pineapple and another half-day of Conquering Curves and a double-dose, day and evening, of my favorite talk, a show-and-tell of scrap quilts old and new.